Five ways of looking at UFC Fight Night 31: Kennedy, groin shots and more

One good thing about a “Fight for the Troops” event is that at least you don’t have to worry about an obnoxious crowd that shows up late and goes boo-crazy every time fighters slow down to take a breath (looking at you, Southern California).

Sure, you might have to listen to just about every winning fighter tell the troops what inspiring heroes they are, and yes, from some of them it feels a little bit patronizing.

Still, when it’s all for a good cause – one that actually benefits soldiers who have been wounded in our wars, rather than just offering them the collective, vague salute that we too often content ourselves with – who can complain? Even if the show did run one video package too many and ended up running over its allotted time, at least Tim Kennedy made sure it wasn’t long.

Some thoughts from Wednesday night’s UFC Fight Night 31…

1. Pressure situation brings out the best in Kennedy There were a lot of ways for this fight to go wrong for Tim Kennedy. Before he even arrived in Fort Campbell, Ky., he had his opponent changed from one who could vault him to the next level to one who he absolutely, positively could not afford to lose to. Then, Kennedy said, he suffered a torn quadriceps a week before the fight. Then he had to show up and headline a show in front of his brothers and sisters in arms, and by the time it was his turn to fight things hadn’t gone so well for the other ex-military fighters on the card.

That’s a ton of pressure for any fighter, especially one who loves the military as much as Kennedy (17-4 MMA, 2-0 UFC). But after watching him lace that left hook across Rafael Natal‘s (17-5-1 MMA, 5-3-1 UFC) skull, you almost wish the UFC could find a way to put him under that same strain for every bout. Or, failing that, maybe it’ll just agree to wipe the slate clean after Kennedy’s relationship with the UFC got off to such a rocky start due to his fighter pay remarks. Bygones, as they say. Now let’s see if we can’t find the man a fight without him having to beg for it on Twitter.

2. Krause gets kicked in the junk, branded with a loss, told “Good day, sir” by referee McCarthy Help me understand this one, Junkie Nation. So James Krause (20-5 MMA, 1-1 UFC) gets kicked directly in the pills twice in one round, both of them so blatant that referee “Big” John McCarthy wisely takes a point away from Bobby Green (21-5 MMA, 1-1 UFC) for the second infraction. Then Green lands a kick just below the belt line, with some part of his foot or ankle clearly also striking the cup area of Krause, who goes down in a heap because, you know, dude is probably a little sore by this point. And you’re telling me that’s a TKO win for Green? Really?

First of all, do I even need to remind you that this is yet another example of how it pays to cheat in MMA? Second, while there may be some situations where you can get away with winning via a kick that’s “right on the border,” according to UFC President Dana White, this shouldn’t be one of them. Green had already kicked Krause in the groin twice. In one round. Then he adjusts his aim slightly so that he merely nicks the top of Krause’s cup rather than digging all up underneath it, and we’re supposed to pretend that he didn’t just win a fight by kicking the other guy in the nuts?

Sorry, no. Without those two previous groin shots, no way Green puts Krause away with that third kick. Absolutely not. And yet, Green gets the win and the win bonus, while Krause gets, what, an ice pack for his testicles? Sometimes I just don’t get this sport.

3. Khabilov and Masvidal live up to expectations It’s refreshing when a great fight on paper becomes a great fight in the flesh, isn’t it? Rustam Khabilov (17-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Jorge Masvidal (25-8 MMA, 2-1 UFC) seemed like prime candidates for a “Fight of the Night” bonus before this fight card popped off. In fact, they seemed like such good candidates that I almost felt bad for mentioning it on this week’s podcast, since that feels like the surest way to jinx a fight. But no, not this time. Khabilov and Masvidal battled back and forth for three great rounds, with “Gamebred” somehow surviving what looked like a fight-ending kick from the Russian. Not only did he survive, he immediately got his wits about him and defended shockingly well, which might be the real triumph for Masvidal here. Khabilov deserved the decision, but neither has anything to feel bad about after that. Enjoy those bonuses, boys. Spend them (or, you know, save them to pay taxes) in good health.

4. Can we stop saying that the female fighters always “steal the show”? It’s condescending, for one thing. It assumes that we would normally expect the female fighters to turn in kind of crappy fights, and are pleasantly surprised when the opposite occurs. For another, it’s just not true. The UFC’s 135-pound women are every bit as capable as having boring or mediocre or decent-but-not-spectacular fights as the men are. We just tend to put undue weight on each women’s fight because there are so few of them. On Wednesday we saw two – Amanda Nunes (9-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) essentially grappled her way to a TKO victory over Germaine de Randamie (4-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC), while Alexis Davis (15-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC) leg-kicked her way to a decision win over Liz Carmouche (9-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC). Neither was bad. Neither stole the show. They just … were. If they were male welterweights, we wouldn’t even need to remind ourselves of that. Maybe after enough time has passed, we’ll get to a point where it’s the same for the UFC’s women.

5. On second thought, maybe trading RNCs with Chiesa was a bad idea It was fun while it lasted, but Colton Smith‘s (3-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) decision to go rear-naked choke for rear-naked choke with RNC expert Michael Chiesa (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) came to a predictable end in the second round. Don’t get me wrong, it was plenty exciting to watch. But when you look at a guy’s record and see one win after another via that very choke, well, maybe trading attacks from back control isn’t the best strategy. Of course, that’s easy for me to say from the comfort of my office chair. I don’t have some dude who looks like an understudy on “Jesus Christ Superstar” trying to squeeze all the blood out of my head.

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